Question of the Day

Whose side of the story do you believe?

QUITO — A volcanic eruption in Ecuador’s Andes Mountains destroyed three villages, killed at least one man and left more than 60 others missing, the mayor of a village on the volcano’s slope said yesterday.

One body was recovered after the overnight eruption of lava from Tungurahua, in the country’s high Andes, and four others were thought to be under the rubble, Penipe Mayor Juan Salazar said.

Choglontuz and Penipe were ordered evacuated on Wednesday hours before the 16,575-foot volcano unleashed gas and ash about 5 miles into the sky, according to a report by Ecuador’s Geophysics Institute.

GERMANY

Grass autobiography a best-seller

BERLIN — German bookshops are struggling to keep up with demand for Guenter Grass’ autobiography after the Nobel Prize-winning author’s shock confession that he had served in Adolf Hitler’s Waffen SS.

Shops have already begun ordering more copies of “Peeling Onions.” The book was due for sale from Sept. 1 but publication was hurriedly brought forward to Wednesday after the storm of controversy over Mr. Grass’ SS confession.

Famous for his first novel “The Tin Drum” published in 1959, Mr. Grass has established himself as a national moral compass in the past half century by challenging Germans to face up to their history.

CANADA

Sex workers seek a place in society

TORONTO — Sex workers and their supporters from 21 countries marched Wednesday at the 16th International AIDS Conference to demand their own place not only at the conference, but in their own societies.

Wearing turquoise T-shirts, they marched from a gauze-draped bed in the Toronto conference’s Stiletto Lounge, one of the exhibits at the meeting, through art displays, exhibits about prisoners with AIDS and around booths offering information to drug users and religious groups.

BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA

Massacre victims exhumed from grave

KAMENICA — The bodies of more than 1,000 victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre have been exhumed from the largest mass grave found to date in Bosnia-Herzegovina, forensic specialists said yesterday.

Specialists began digging in June near the Bosnian village of Kamenica, close to the border with Serbia, where they have found eight other mass graves. The team has exhumed 144 complete and 1,009 partial skeletons.

Along with the remains, specialists found 14 documents indicating the victims were killed in the Srebrenica massacre, which became the site of Europe’s worst mass execution since World War II when Serbian troops in 1995 overran the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica, which had been declared a safe zone.

INDIA

Singh says no changes to U.S. nuclear deal

NEW DELHI — India will not agree to any changes to a landmark civilian nuclear cooperation deal reached with the United States last year, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said yesterday.

President Bush and Mr. Singh signed an agreement on July 18, 2005, allowing U.S. agencies and companies to sell India nuclear fuel and technology.

In return, India would have to strengthen nuclear safeguards, allow international inspections of its civilian facilities, and separate its civilian and military nuclear programs. Eight reactors identified as military would remain off-limits.